(Adds details of the drug in paragraph 3 and 4, background in paragraph 5 and 6)
Sept 15 (Reuters) - British drugmaker GSK Plc said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved its experimental oral therapy to treat anemia in patients with a type of bone marrow cancer called myelofibrosis.
The approval comes after the health regulator in July delayed its decision on the therapy to review additional data.
The therapy, momelotinib, has been approved for patients who have previously received treatment using an FDA-approved, anti-inflammatory class of drug called JAK inhibitors.
While GSK's therapy, branded as Ojjaara, also belongs to the same class of treatments, it additionally helps bring down the levels of a protein called hepcidin, which regulates how the body uses iron.
Myelofibrosis disrupts the body's production of blood cells, often causing severe anemia, or a deficiency of red blood cells. People with myelofibrosis-triggered anemia rely on periodic blood transfusions to improve their red blood cell count.
Myelofibrosis is a rare type of cancer that can lead to anemia and swelling in the liver. It affects less than 50,000 patients in the U.S., according to government data. (Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Bhanvi Satija in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
